Apparently doing the dishes is a really powerful planning tool.

Oh my God, people. I had to come blog about this because it was cool, and because I have to write it down somewhere. Also because I want to get it down somewhere in words (words! Outside-my-head words!) so that I can say, look, there it is, written down.

I was just cleaning a baking tray while I waited for my toast to toast for lunch. Also making a cup of my favourite tea. That’s what was happening in the real world. But what was happening in my head was complicated and awesome and sort of down to Havi (duh!) and Tim Brownson (about whom, more in another post). But also, of course, down to me and my own pure fabulousness (hahaha).

I’ve been thinking about various stuff lately which comes along the following lines:

1. I know what I want to be doing, really and truly.

2. I know what I need to do to make it happen, pretty much.
3. I absolutely don’t dare to take the risk.

And what I’d like to be doing is this: living in Deal, in Kent, with a cat. No longer employed in a boring day job of the kind I am doing right now, but making my living from writing fiction and selling it to people who want to read it – or having it published in a mainstream kind of way. Continuing to practice the “self friendship” thing and continuing to learn about myself, and perhaps starting to believe more in my aforementioned fabulousness.

(Lots of people who are not me seem to think I am fabulous. They can’t all be insane. That would not be logical, Captain*.)

And while I was doing the dishes, I was thinking about this desire and about how to get my life a bit closer to it. In the process of thinking about it, I hit upon a plan: to try it out. I can’t suddenly snap my fingers and be making money from writing, but I can work to make more space for it in my life. And I can definitely try the experiment of quitting my job, moving to Deal, and getting a cat.

So – that’s what I’m going to do.

Not right now, for lots of reasons, most of which boil down to “I’m not insane”. But I’m going to start putting things in place for it right now. The important stuff being:

1. I’m going to sort out my provisional driver’s license and learn to drive. (Public transport is not as good on the Kent coast as it is in London, and I will probably need a car.)

2. I’m going to start saving money on a regular basis, which means figuring out how to put a curb on my spending – so a little working on my relationship with money is in order. Also, budgeting.
3. I’m going to start making and keeping “writing appointments” with myself, at least half an hour each day.

The plan is to have a driver’s license, a car, and £7000 saved up by this time next year – which will incidentally be right around my 30th birthday (I’m 29 tomorrow). £7000 is, I figure, about enough to live on for six months, with some emergency money set aside too (I also have credit cards in case of real emergencies – but I think I am going to pay them off now and stop spending on them for the forseeable future, in the attempt to work on this “saving money” thing).

I feel rather energized about all this! I really want to do it and to give it a go.

I must also blog about Deal soon. The short version is that I went on holiday with my mum there, a couple of weeks ago, and fell hopelessly in love with the town. The long version will have to be a blog post all its own, because there is lots of stuff to think about it.

Deal and Tim Brownson. My blog will not be short of topics!

*Sorry, obsessed with Star Trek at the moment. Spock-logic may become part of my personal process and a way of seeing outside my patterns – you never know.

Tagged as: deal!, ramblings from my head, self friendship, stalking Havi Brooks, stories from my world